AllFreeNovel
Share Us
11
Mercy
As the engine idled,Kaige drummed his fingers on the steering wheel. “Are you sure this is a good idea?”
“Definitely,” I said, scanning the street through the windshield. The mid-day sun blazed over the row of run-down shops, making me grateful for the blast of air conditioning washing over us. “Wylder said I shouldn’t leave the van, and I won’t. He didn’t say anything about the van going places.”
Kaige snorted and glanced at me sideways. “Somehow I don’t think that’s because he wanted you driving all over town.”
“Well, I’m not driving. You are.” I sank back in my seat and checked my phone for any new texts from the people we were supposed to meet. “If Xavier is closing in on me, then it’s even more important we find out everything we can about his operations as soon as possible. These guys helped me before—trust me on this.”
To my relief, Kaige nodded. It’d taken some coaxing to get him behind the wheel in the first place, but he was committed to my little side-mission now.
Thankfully, his patience didn’t need to be tested any longer. Two figures sauntered out of the shadows of an alleyway and headed straight for the van. They climbed in through the back door I’d left unlocked. I twisted in my seat.
“Hey, Kervos,” I said, nodding to the bigger guy and then the slimmer one. “Hey, Roy. Thanks for coming out.”
The two former Claws members I’d played cards with the other night came over to lean against the back of our seats. “You remembered my name,” Roy said with a little laugh. “I got introduced to your dad at least half a dozen times, and he always acted like it was the first.”
“Tyrell had a lot more people to keep track of,” Kervos grumbled, but he gave me a nod that seemed approving before taking a closer look at the space behind him with its wall of screens and other tech. “Quite the setup you’ve got here.”
“It’s not really my van,” I admitted. “I don’t know how to use all that stuff. We’re just relying on our eyes today. You said you know a few businesses the Steel Knights were operating that might still be active?”
“Even in hiding, we hear things,” Kervos said.
Roy rubbed his angular chin, darkened with a few days’ old scruff. “What do you want to check those out for anyway?”
“If we’re going to strike back at the Storm’s people most of the Steel Knights seem to have joined up with, we’ve got to hit them where it’ll hurt,” I said. “Whatever they’re doing to make money, wherever they’re stashing supplies.”
“Makes sense.” Kervos pointed down the street. “The nearest place we can try is a few blocks south and then take a right on Maple Avenue.”
Kaige pulled away from the curb and headed south.
Most of the businesses we passed looked like normal stores and restaurants, but that didn’t mean they weren’t fronts to hide gang activity. Even in the middle of the day, barely anyone was out walking the streets. It was so quiet it made my stomach ache.
How long was it going to take for the Bend to recover, even if we crushed these Storm assholes tomorrow?
A moment after we’d turned the corner, Kervos motioned to a building just down the street. “There. That salon. The Steel Knights had some hookers using the rooms overtop, and they sold stolen merch out of the back sometimes.”
Kaige slowed as we cruised by. I spotted the remains of a Steel Knights symbol spray painted in red beside the door, but someone had scrubbed most of it off.
We parked down the street and watched for several minutes. A woman went in through the front doors who was probably just a regular client. Then a couple of guys who didn’t look as if they’d had a haircut in at least a year ambled out from the alley that led around back, one of them with a duffel bag slung over his shoulder. The bulge at the back of the other’s jeans told me he was carrying a gun.
“There you go,” Kervos said, following my gaze.
“They’re not wearing the Steel Knights bandanas on their arms,” Kaige pointed out.
“Neither were the ones I’ve seen with the Storm’s people before.” I frowned. “I guess that makes it even more likely the ones using the salon have gone over to the Storm. Drive around the block so I can get a closer look at it.”
Kaige did as I asked, and I jotted some notes about potential access points and the activity we’d seen. I wasn’t sure the salon was seeing enough action that cracking down on it would make much impact, but we had to keep our options open.
Next Kervos directed us to a convenience store that turned out to be closed. We watched it for a half an hour without anyone coming or going. That didn’t guarantee they were no longer using it, but it obviously wasn’t a happening spot.
The butcher shop we checked out next was similarly deserted. Finally, we ended up parked near an old arcade that I remembered had gotten popular with my high school peers a few years back when retro gaming had become cool again.
We’d only been there for a couple of minutes when a truck stopped outside and some men hauled several boxes in through the front door. None of them were wearing bandanas either, but I expected as much now. They had an air about them that told me whatever was in those boxes, it had nothing to do with video games. I caught a flash of a pistol when one guy lifted his arms to close the back of the truck.
“I think any Steel Knight who didn’t want to stick around with the Storm’s people got shot for their trouble,” Roy said. “They’re all or nothing, those guys.”
